News from the Library of Congress

July 28, 1999

About 2,000 Russian Political and Civic Leaders to Visit
Communities in America Between July 28 and
September 30

First Group To Arrive in Kansas City Today

About 20 Russian political and civic leaders
will arrive in the Kansas City area on July 28 to
spend 10 days observing their political
counterparts in action and living with American
families to become familiar with their
life-styles and community and cultural
lives.

They are part of the first group of nearly
300 leaders participating in the Library of
Congress Open World Russian Leadership Program (RLP). Similarly sized groups will come to the
United States each week for the subsequent seven
weeks, with the last group arriving in the
United States the week of September 13.

A total of about 2,000 Russian political and
civic leaders will visit cities and communities
throughout the United States under the RLP
program between July 28 and September 30 of this
year to observe how American government works
and how American citizens conduct their daily
lives and work. The RLP, a program established
by the U.S. Congress last May, is one of the
largest and most inclusive one-time visitation
programs to the United States ever.

The Russian participants will be in Kansas
City and Lee's Summit, Mo., and will be hosted
by local families, politicians and
organizations. For more information on the
Russian participants and their local host
families in the area contact: David Gale in
Lee's Summit, the program coordinator for Rotary
International in the area, (816) 525-9400
(office), (816) 820-2750 (home), e-mail gale@qni.com.

The program was officially announced by the
Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington, at a
press conference in Moscow on July 19 with the
U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation, James
F. Collins. On July 20, a similar announcement
was made in the U.S. Capitol in Washington with
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), Yury V. Ushakov,
Ambassador of the Russian Federation, and the
program's Executive Director, James W.
Symington, a former member of Congress and
former U.S. State Department Chief of
Protocol.

The Russian Leadership program was authorized
by the U.S. Congress in P.L. 106-31 (Section
3011). The appropriation for the pilot program
is for fiscal 1999, so all travel must be
completed by September 30, the last day of this
fiscal year.

Sen. Stevens, who serves as the Chairman of
the Joint Committee on the Library and was the
chief sponsor of the authorizing legislation,
said, "The program is unique in many ways. It
will bring the largest number of visitors to the
U.S. ever to see and experience the multilayered
American political system -- from our small-town
mayors and town councils to governors and
members of Congress."

Dr. Billington is chairman of the RLP. He is
one of the world's leading historians of Russian
culture and was recently elected a Foreign
Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The
dean of all scholars of Russian literary
culture, Academician Dmitry S. Likhachev, of St.
Petersburg, is honorary co-chairman.

The Library has selected the American
Councils for International Education:
ACTR/ACCELS, headed by Dr. Dan Davidson, to help
administer the program in the Russian
Federation. The American Councils currently
implement some of the largest professional and
academic exchanges between Russia and the United
States.

The RLP is based on the mutual desire of the
peoples of Russia and the United States to
improve understanding between the two nations,
as expressed in a U.S.-Russian memorandum of
understanding signed last fall. The size and
scope of the RLP is particularly enhanced by the
strong support of members of the U.S. Congress,
who are committed to improving relations through
direct contact and exchange of visits among
parliamentary and congressional leaders.

The RLP also differs from previous exchange
programs in its size and intensity, in its
emphasis on direct contact with Americans at the
grassroots level and in its goal of providing
direct experience in the American political
system at all levels -- federal, state and
local.

Background

The RLP was first suggested by Dr. Billington
in an article last summer and in discussions
with members of Congress earlier this spring on
the state of U.S. relations with the Russian
Federation. The program is inviting current and
emerging Russian civic and political leaders and
decision-makers at all levels with a strong
emphasis on regional and local
participation.

The Library asked a wide range of
governmental and non-governmental entities in
Russia and the United States to nominate
participants who will include elected officials,
civic and political leaders, policymakers and
emerging public leaders.

The final makeup of the group invited to
visit the United States this summer will be as
representative of Russia as geographically,
demographically, and politically as possible.
Priority will be given to those who have never
been to the United States.

The ability to speak English is not required.
Several hundred English-speaking Russian
graduate students will be included in the
program as interpreters, and host organizations
and communities are encouraged to provide as
many local Russian-speaking interpreters as
possible.

Host Programs

The Russian participants will be matched as
much as possible with host communities and
professional counterparts comparable with their
own communities and official positions. State
and county legislators, mayors and
administrative officers such as police and
health officials will be invited to visit their
American counterparts.

In addition to professional exchanges with
colleagues, Russian participants will be invited
to experience firsthand the relationships of the
legislative, executive and judicial branches of
government, the functioning of business and
civic communities, and the ways that individual
citizens relate to government.

Participants will see how elected officials
do their jobs and how they interact with non-
governmental organizations and with individuals
who play an integral role in governance, such as
labor unions and business organizations, as well
as public interest and special interest groups.
They also will observe the role of the media in
an open society, law enforcement, and the
question of ethics in government.

The Russian leaders will first travel to
Moscow for orientation briefings, and then
proceed to the host communities. In addition to
transportation, the RLP will provide
accommodations and meals for the
participants.

Many participants will stay in private homes;
all will share the daily cultural and community
lives of their hosts. They will have an
opportunity to visit other institutions such as
schools, libraries, churches, theaters,
hospitals and commercial enterprises.

Participants will be in the United States for
about 10 days, with a Washington, D.C., visit
optional for those who are personal guests of
members of Congress. The Library of Congress has
awarded grants and entered into cooperative
agreements with a wide range of organizations
with long experience in operating and hosting
exchange programs with Russia.

[A complete list of grants and cooperative
agreements is included along with the names of
the contact person].

In a speech on May 18, Dr. Billington cited
the stability of Russia as "the No. 1 foreign
policy concern for U.S. interests." Relations
between the two countries have been strained by
the war in Yugoslavia, but he described this as
a time of transition in Russia's development of
democracy, and said that "it is important for
leaders from all over Russia to have a chance to
meet and exchange ideas with their counterparts
all over America."

He also pointed out that wider human contacts
with emerging leaders from regions, many of
which have had little outside exposure, can
create conditions for better relations with an
emerging new generation of leaders.

"It is our hope that the Russian Leadership Program -- the largest such program ever
conducted by the United States -- might be a
modest first step to that end with Russia," he
said.